Heritage Scholar: NKorea's Threats Serious, But Not New

North Korea’s nuclear threat against the United States is real, but the United States shouldn’t be too nervous about it — at least not yet, according to a leading expert on Northeast Asia.

“They do these kind of threats every time the United Nations … [poses] more sanctions on them as they did in 2009,’’ Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show.’’

“And also there’s an annual U.S.-South Korea military exercise, which is ongoing now, which always leads to an increase in North Korean threats. That said, we can’t just simply dismiss them as empty threats because North Korea is increasing its military capability."

North Korea, Klingner said, is “clearly near the end of the path to getting nuclear weapons that can hit the United States … On the other hand, we can’t be overly nervous because a lot of these threats are really more for coercive diplomacy.’’

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His remarks came as the East Asian nation on Monday declared the 1953 Korean War armistice null and void. North Korea also warned it could launch a nuclear strike against Washington.

“They advocated the armistice back in 2009 and they also abrogated all of the North/ South Korean agreements back in 2009,’’ Klingner said. “So there’s a circular nature to their threats.’’
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North Korea s nuclear threat against the United States is real, but the United States shouldn t be too nervous about it at least not yet, according to a leading expert on Northeast Asia.
They do these kind of threats every time the United Nations … [poses] more...